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Alabama Girl Who Wore Tux for Senior Portrait Left Out of Yearbook Photos

Holley Gerelds said she hopes this incident will be a turning point for the school and that students will be able to "wear what they want"

An Alabama high school student who wore a tuxedo for her senior portrait instead of the traditional black drape for girls received her yearbook only to discover that her photo was missing, NBC News reports.

Holley Gerelds, who graduated this year from Springville High School, told NBC affiliate WVTM in Birmingham that she wanted to be herself in her senior portrait so she asked the photographer if she could wear a tuxedo. Gerelds, who according to WVTM is part of the LGBT community, said it would have been "kind of humiliating" to have to wear the traditional black drape.

The photographer agreed to let Gerelds wear a black tux, but when she received her yearbook earlier this week she noticed that her portrait was not published. Instead, her name was listed on a back page as "Not Pictured."

Mike Howard, superintendent of the St. Clair County School District, said in a statement that senior portraits "were taken in accordance with long-standing school guidelines," adding that the district is "reevaluating those guidelines to consider what changes, if any, need to be made." The superintendent said the school will reprint a page of the yearbook to include all students.

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